I like to think I was born with a pen in my hand. Ever since I can remember, I wanted to see my words in print; newspapers, magazines, and of course, books—any medium would do. However, this lifelong pursuit wasn’t handed to me on a golden scroll.
Predictively, my first book was my most significant learning curve. What had started as a fictional ghost haunting at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut, grew into a non-fiction, biographical account of William Henry Goodspeed.
Goodspeed was an entrepreneur on a grand scale. In 1876, by the time he opened the doors at his now famed opera house, he owned or was part owner of sixteen businesses, all in his small farm town.
In the early 1870s, the Connecticut Valley Railroad was under construction, and Goodspeed did everything within his power to see that the railroad would come through East Haddam. Of course, this would have been a great boon to his businesses.
However, despite his best efforts, the railroad was routed through Haddam, on the other side of the river. This meant extra time and money by those wishing to ferry across the Connecticut River to visit East Haddam.
Appropriately, I included some material about Goodspeed’s struggles to get the railroad to come to East Haddam. From there, it took a life of its own. I researched and wrote about numerous accidents, robberies, derailments, and engine trouble that plagued the early railroads. What should have been a paragraph at most, derailed into pages worth of material.
To illustrate this point, I included examples such as the Harlow Bridge, 1867 Vermont train wreck. It was the worst accident in Vermont’s railroad history. Of the ninety railroad and bridge workers onboard, fifteen men were killed and many more wounded. An article in the New York Times reported:
“The workmen had taken dinner at Northfield, and were returning to their work, between 1:30 and 2:00 o’clock, in a train of a single car, engine and tender. This was backed rapidly to the bridge by the engineer, Frank Abbott, till when close to the bridge the fireman called his attention to the rapid rate at which they were approaching the chasm. The engineer then reversed his engine and made every effort to stop, but too late. The car was backed right off the abutment and fell with its living freight of ninety men to the frozen ground and rocks below.
It further stated that the drop from the bridge was seventy feet, and it took rescuers two hours to reach the scene and offer aid.
Besides the details of the accident, I included gripping verbiage and descriptive paragraphs, which I thought would place the reader right there at the scene. So I was surprised when a beta reader, also the town historian of Chester, Connecticut, crossed everything out. All four pages! I was devastated. I thought almost every single word stays when you write a book. No matter how fascinating that story was, he wisely understood it was sorely off the subject. He pointed out how a Vermont railroad accident, although both exciting and tragic, had nothing to do with Connecticut, William Goodspeed, the opera house, or the Connecticut Valley Railroad.
Lesson learned.
Okay, maybe not right away. I’ll admit it took me a few days to realize he was right.
This is the challenge our editors face, especially with first-time authors. It comes down to trusting the process and believing in your editor.
Fifteen books later, I rarely question much of what my editor suggests deleting. It might lead to some spirited conversations, but it’s essential to see that there are other points of view. Yes, it crushed me when my beta reader crossed it out, but the good news is I’m a better writer for it.
So, don’t take it to heart when your editor suggests some deleting. Your book just might be all the better for it.
- M. Jacobs, a native to the shoreline area of Connecticut, now resides in various locations along the east coast with his wife traveling and working from their RV motorhome. He has written and published 15 books (one of which was featured on C-SPAN), over 450 articles published in various newspapers and magazines, teaches classes on writing and publishing, and is currently the owner of JWC Publishing. He is the founder and former editor for Patriots of the American Revolution magazine and has been a freelance writer since 1988.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timjacobsghostwriter/
Website: www.jacobswc.com
Email: [email protected]
